And on it goes, does the London Art Scene seem a little busier at the start of this year than it has been in recent years? A touch more alive? Maybe that freezing cold Taylor Silk opening night warmed things up at the start of January? The combination of explore a chunk of Condo and the cherry picking at the London Art Fair helped of course, Erin M. Riley at Mother’s Tankstation over on Three Colt Lane, Moka Lee at Carlos/Ishikawa Gallery up on the Mile End Road, there’s been some good art so far this year (there’s been some annoying art as well but you know the policy around here, only the good stuff, most of the London Art Fair really wasn’t that good) and well, on we go and last Friday being a rather dull rather wet morning at the end of January I find myself having to deliver some of my own art to a West End gallery and well, a couple of hours of exploring before a retreat to the East. Past that busker, deliver the art and on to Dover Street and a deliberate path to something that’s been calling at the Richard Saltoun Gallery.

As we said when it was featured as one of our five recommended art shows thing a couple of weeks back, this one should be good for your soul, Jennifer Binnie is always good for your heart and soul, it is hard not to smile in front of a Jennifer Binnie painting

– “Richard Saltoun Gallery presents British artist Jennifer Binnie’s (b.1958) inaugural solo exhibition with the gallery”. How can you not like Jennifer Binnie’s art, her spirit, her knowing, her undercurrents, her hints of otherness, paganism, spirituality, feminism, mythology, old English folklore, those notions of the Captain’s Table, dare we call her a hippy? If we dare then it is positively so, there’s something very real about her, there’s something very positive about her art, not everyone could get away with doing what  Jennifer Binnie has been doing for quite some time now and to walk in through the low key front door of the gallery really is uplifting on a very dull January Friday…

“Forest Visions spans paintings and works on paper from the 1980s to the present day, celebrating over four decades of Binnie’s pioneering practice that converges influences from folklore, spirituality, feminism, and ecological thought…”

Uplifting, refreshing, spirted, beautifully coloured, rich, Jennifer Binnie’s art is strong, it is almost delightful but that isn’t right, delightful sounds almost throwaway, a touch patronising and the last thing Jennifer Binnie or her art needs is to be patronised for heaven’s sake! These are strong paintings, almost defiant paintings, it feels exciting in here seeing these powerful pieces in the flesh and I’m more than happy to say I am a fan. I have been a fan since those days back there where she built a healthy presence as one of the original members of the Neo-Naturists, a rather radical performance art collective she co-founded in 1981 with her sister Christine Binnie and Wilma Johnson. a healthy presence that emerged from the undergrowth and the various strands of subculture where the punks and the free festival tribes blended with what became of the tentacles of the New Romantic club scene and squat gigs in a London far more alive that now, a London where those dressed in black, the punks rather than the goths, were the real hippies. The Neo-Naturists developed against the backdrop of the sweeping economic, political and cultural changes of the time, they were rooted in a positive mix of naked body painting, folkloric rituals and a rejection of Thatcherite conservatism, “their performances took inspiration from early avant-garde movements and served as a subversive commentary on patriarchal hierarchies”. It was a time of DIY, of hand made things, posters, zines (including one very hand made zine called Organ that emerged around and was often on sale at events) of people, artists, bands making things happen on their own terms and not some many rules, people almost defiantly coming together and emerging out of it all and Jennifer Binnie’s voice as well as her increasingly individual paintings came from all that…

Jennifer herself talks of echoing suggestions found in powerful American writer Ursula Le Guin’s science fiction as well as Donna Haraway’s eco-feminist theory, it is that she actually walks it, does it rather than just talks it, that she does it in such rich powerful way. These paintings in here are glorious, they’re full of so much, so much to read but then again if you don’t, just so much to stand in front of and feel. There’s only me and the person behind the desk, we have a brilliant exchange about how brilliant it all is without needing to say anything much to each other, walking out back onto the street it is another quietly punch the air moment, yes!, That was good! needed that!
– “She started exhibiting her paintings with gallerist James Birch in London from the 80s onwards, garnering critical praise from many. Her artistic language has since developed around a persistent exploration of dissolving hierarchies between the human and non-human; her paintings depict mysterious forests humming with unseen energies; animals acting as guides and companions; and human figures merging with trees and landscapes, suggesting a shared life source”.   

Not so much a hippy, more a Goddess, yes, I think I can get away with saying that, I love Jennifer Binnie’s work, I am a fan..

Richard Saltoun Gallery is found at 41 Dover Street, London, W1S 4NS. The Gallery is open Tuesday through to Saturday, 10am to 6pm (11am until 5pm on Saturdays). Jennifer Binnie, Forest Visions is at Richard Saltoun Gallery until 1st Mar 2025 Previous Organ coverage of the Gallery

And I am an art fan, I know, I know, not a cool thing to say and I do spend half my time raging against the machine and kicking against the pricks and there is so much wrong with art and the burden of being an artist, and oh mother, its eating out my soul and oh look at them go. off  further along Dover Street, according to my back of an old envelope app and smart phones being the work of the devil, next on the list is Gazelli Art and I was thinking about thinking but it really didn’t get me very far, it got be as far as Lilly Fenichel‘s Against the Grain at Gazelli Art House and well, been needing to get this one for a couple of weeks as well, another of our recommended five and well… 

– “Gazelli Art House will open their 2025 programme with Lilly Fenichel’s first UK solo exhibition, titled, Against the Grain“. – “Lilly Fenichel’s work is imbued with her own powerful rebel persona and defiance, a career defined by resistance to the art market’s pressures and an unwavering commitment to her own vision. Her expressive canvases, haunting drawings, and layered sculptures stand as a tribute to an artist who didn’t follow trends but set her own creative path, embodying the spirit of independence that fueled mid-century abstraction.  Lilly Fenichel’s work is refreshingly varied, revealing her relentless curiosity and the range of her creative expression. Her diverse body of work speaks to an artist unafraid to explore different media, forms, and techniques” – well yes it is varied, it almost feels like a group show in here, actually no almost about it, have I got this wrong, I was expecting a solo show, Ido need to do a double check, it is the big abstract paintings I really want to see –

Susan Landauer, in the catalogue essay for Denver Art Museum’s eponymous exhibition Women of Abstract Expressionism (2016), wrote “Among the few women admitted into the male-dominated abstract expressionist movement, Lilly Fenichel produced formidable paintings with a range of compositional strategies and a gritty elegance all their own.”

Reflecting on her career, Juri Koll, Director of the Venice Institute of Contemporary Art, remarks, “She is one of the true rebels and is an extremely important, if somewhat under-recognized artist in art history.” In a landscape where artists often bent to the demands of galleries and markets, Fenichel was steadfast, and her legacy is now seen as one of quiet but unyielding impact.

“As an artist, Fenichel moved in circles with notable peers like Richard Diebenkorn, Hassel Smith and Frank Lobdell, yet she chose a path uniquely her own. Her creative journey was marked by resistance to external pressures, and each piece carries an unmistakable sense of liberation. Lilly Fenichel’s work is a timeless reminder of what art can achieve when it is true to itself, uncompromising, and passionately free”.

 Lilly Fenichel (1927 – 2016) was one of the most important female painters involved with San Francisco’s early Abstract Expressionist movement. I mean, being an American abstract painter back there before the war, before the 50s and Jack the Dripper’s door pushing (or should that be Lee Krasner’s pushing on Jackson and American art’s behalf?), was tough enough, it really wasn’t taken that seriously by the European-focussed art establishment so being a female abstract painter, well, enough said, I am kind of teaching you to suck eggs and stating the bleedin’ obvious here and really I just wanted to take this rare chance to see a body of Lilly Fenichel’s art in the flesh. And no, none of this should be taken for granted, I just walked in off the street into an art gallery, no one stopped me, no one asked for money, no one bothered me, thanks Gazelli Art House, these things should never be taken for granted.

it was good to see some of those big bold Lilly Fenischel pieces, time may have caught up with some of her work now and yes, maybe I do see lots of big abstract paintings like this but context and time and place and well, it was good to see and well if you do have a chance, then it is a rather recommended way to spend a little bit of time. 

Gazelli Art House is at 39 Dover Street, London, W1S 4NN. The Gallery is open Monday to Saturday, 10am until 6pm. The show runs until 15th March 2025

And then on to the Jim Hodges exhibition and the further adventures of the rainy afternoon that was the last Friday of January, oh the endless parade…

As always, do click on an image to see the whole thing or to run the slide show